Hello All!

Me and Bizzle are trying to upload some photos onto the blog today as I realised I brought a card reader with me! This photo is from the horrible second day, just look how steep it was! We the the water droplets on my lense just add to the authenticity of this place!

Today we had planned to go to the Musuem but after trying to confirm with the hotel attendant on where exactly it was, she told us that it's closed o Mondays and Fridays, so perhaps we will try again tomorrow! Instead she told us of a shopping plaza on the other side of the Lake, and so feeling brave we ventured out! After trying to navigate our way through the streets and across the roads (I have never missed English zebra crossings and traffic lights so much!) we managed to find the Lake and walk a little way round. We had hoped for an ice cream, how after reading the english translation of one flavour as 'Taro' we decided to wait until later and find a branded ice cream shop! We were also on a mission to find a post office (perhaps the one post office) in Hanoi, buy some postcards and some stamps. We found the post office coming to the conclusion that VNPT stood for post office here, and saw the one yellow post box outside so to post them we may have to venture out again. Although we couldn't exactly find 'the shopping plaza' we were in a more uptown district with air conditioned shops, selling more pricey stuff.. we also saw an Accessorise here, which is one of the first chain shops we've seen around. A lady nearby was carrying an IKEA bag and so maybe there might be a local one of them here too. We carried on round the lake, stopping for ice cream, I had the vietnamese version of a strawberry cornetto -definitely the safe option! Bizzle looked at some of the pots and came across a 'Rice Flake' ice cream pot.... deciding to stay away she too chose a berry sort of flavour ice cream (neither tasted much like strawberry, just a sweet berry general flavour) we hope that the rice ice cream wasn't a missed opportunity!
No news from the group walking at the moment, hopefully meaning nothing to report. Last time we spoke they were all happy relaxing at another homestay playing cards. We'll email Mark from True Adventure and try and get a message via the sat phone from them just to check in! They've had a couple of long days so we think they'll be pretty tired. When we join them on thursday we're hoping to take them some sort of treat from Hanoi, like some cakes of chocolate to eat that eveneing before we begin our project.
Will try and add some more photos of the Homestays and the Lake!
Much love, Alice and Bizzle xxxxx

Alice and I

We managed to get 10 hours sleep last night which was much needed by both of us. Alice's shoulder is moving more freely now and her rash is going down. We have decided that it was an allergy to the mud!
Talking of mud, I washed all of Alices clothes in the bath this morning. I think half of Mai Chau was on her shorts and t shirt from Tuesday!! They're looking and smelling much better now.
We have watched Toy Story 2 and 3 and then ventured out trying to find Ben some flip flops as he only bought his walking boots. It would appear that mens feet only grow as big as size 8 here !!! Alice bought a skirt, then we came back in half cooked to go on FB etc. We have found somewhere different to eat later, and its not the place selling bbq'd baby chicks on the street round the corner - YUCK!
A strange man selling books would n't leave us alone earlier, we had to be quite stroppy with him. Everywhere we went he followed us.
We may venture to a museum tomorrow, it is quite a long walk though so depends on the weather and toilet requirements!!
We are both feeling more chipper today as have chatted on FB to friends and Baz phoned me last night, he was worried about me and wants to put us in a 5* hotel, just imagine! Need to stay here though as it has a been risk assessed and red tape firmly in place! I just love the Hilton toiletries though, oh and the pool! I think the rest of the group would be a bit miffed too as they sleep over cows, pigs, roosters, lovely toilets, shall I go on ??
I will sign off now and let you know if we make it to the museum tomorrow or not.
Love and hugs to all, Biz and Alice xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A tough few days for all

We travelled to the start of our trek and received a roll and cheese triangle, some tuna and water melon for lunch, then we set off, straight up a hill. We were all gasping for air as it was so hot. A few moments later the lightening started and then came the rain, that was 5 days ago and its still raining now!!! All of our stuff was soaked through, but hey, thats part of the fun, we were told! First night in the homestay was interesting. The group was split between two. In my homestead we had Charlie sleep walking and talking, Harry with a reaction on his face, he was on fire! and me with several trips to the hole in the ground!! Cam fell through the floorboard but caught himself on the hand rail!
We had to change our route for the next day as the road was inpassable. We walked for 11.5 hours over the most horrendously challenging terrain I have ever experienced. Everyone did so well. There were many falls, scraps on rocks and general crying and swearing when it all became too much. Weeksey fell badly and has a massively black thigh and is now sporting crutchless shorts, kind of held together by gaffa tape, thanks Kilpatrick for that tip! Alice took a bad fall, she face planted the floor and we thought had broken her collar bone, but after two hospitals, a six hour car journey, getting stuck in the mud, I am glad to report it is just soft tissue damage, so she and I have been pulled from the trek back to Hanoi until next THursday morning when we will re join the group.
I have spoken to Battye, he says the group is happy and getting on really well with the job in hand.
Keep following the tracker and sending messages of support, it is really tough out here.
Biz (Jayne) and Alice xxx

Hanoi in a day

Hey all Harry and Alice here!

We begun a day in and around hanoi today it has been INSANELY hot today, nice and sweaty! We began day with breakfast, i started thinking that i would have a omlette but too my incredable dissapointment it came out as a fried egg !!!! we then decided that  we would go out, we split up into 3 groups, our transport,  accomadation and food,!  in our group we decided to eat in a great street vending cafe we ate errm well we dont know excatly what we ate was nice! there are many different veiws some say it was a snake others a bulls penis but i still thought nice, after that we did a bit of shopping, it was nice to wander arround the streets and take in all the sights, sounds and smell ! ohh vietnam or hanoi isnt the most clean smelling country, i would explain it but i cant! we then went to walk arround the local lake, ben was fighting all his demons whilest all the locals tryed to sell him cigarettes. we are back now in the hotel, all relaxing in steam rooms of our own sweat! we will try to keep you all posted but we are going out on our trek this will take us 8 days to walk 100 miles!!!!! we are sending our love home and missing all ! xxxxx   

Arrived safe and sound

After a long and tiring journey we finally have reached Hanoi and are currently at Luxe Hotel. We have been out around the squares sampling the local food and getting to grips with crossing the roads and avoiding the motor cycles (all 3 million of them)

The hotel is standard, has air conditioning and comfy beds - which all saw us hit them at around 9pm local time last night. Bizzle and I fell asleep in about 5 seconds, two seconds slower than the rest of the group.

We have sung happy birthday to Charlie who turned 16 this morning and he has the honour of being our group leader for the day. We are soon to out exploring the city and get a better understanding of the local culture.

We are off to start our trek tomorrow and will not be able to up date the blog for about 15 days, so keep an eye on the tracker to see where we are up to. 100miles here we come!!!!!

With love to all, Weeksey and Biz and the rest of the TA crew xxxxxx

Pre Departure Day

As we all met at Capron House Sixth Form block for the bag packing, team talk, team photo outside of Cafe Verdi (who have kindly given us some money to help with our project), distribution of safety kit and water puryfying liquid the nerves and excitement were high. So were the smiles....

Bizzle smiling proudly as she passes her bag check

To give you some idea of how much (or little) stuff we are taking, below is a selection of contents from various bags, the first one is Harry's...

 After Molly and Josie got thier bags checked...

 We then took a trip to Cafe Verdi for our group shot. The team at Cafe Verdi in Midhurst High Street kindly donated money to help with the project part of our expedition. 

 Before I go and greet everyone again at the airport (Heathrow T3 at 8.30am 10.7.11) I wanted to share the photo of Tom with his new shorter hair do! 

 Night, Weeksey x

Making a comment on our blog...

Dear Parents, friends, students, fellow staff members and the Boss!

We depart  in eight days time and I thought that I would post some handy hints on how to make a comment on the blog.(Just trying to help those who may be doing this for the first time... my parents being in that category!)

1 - Firstly click on the comment section at the end of a post...

2 - You then should have a screen which allows you to make a comment. 

3 - At the end of the comment box, you have a bit that says "Post comment as...". Click on the choices and then scroll down to Name / URL or Anonymous (this way you will not need to create an account or sign in and can make the name your choice)

4 - Then click Post Comment and you are done!

We all look forward to your comments, words of encouragement, snippets of what is happening at home / school / work and we will try and update the blog as often as possible. 

Night, Weeksey x